No description available.

No description available.

Principals come to their current positions with their own beliefs about their role, about their practice, and about other educational issues related to the nature of education: schools, teachers, students, community, and professional growth. These and all other factors that influence how principals think about their job are what I refer to as "principals' professional beliefs." This study demonstrated that principals bring to change initiatives their professional beliefs and those beliefs influence how they interpret the language of the change initiative, how they conceptualize the change, and how they plan for enactment of the policy change. I used a multi-case study approach to examine how eight principals in a school district that was undergoing a district policy change, thought about their enactment of the change at the school level. I identified three groups of principals: (1) supporters of teacher decision making, (2) facilitators of shared values, and (3) promoters of mutual respect. These principals differed in their involvement in the negotiation of the way the change would be carried out in the school, how much and what kinds of support they offered to teachers, and the degree of autonomy they allowed teachers in determining how the change would be implemented. Three questions guided the study: (1) What factors influence principals' responses to a change in school district policy? More specifically, what are the professional and context-specific issues the principals consider as they interpret a school district policy change and plan for their own action in carrying out that change process? (2) How do principals enact the policy changes in their own schools? (3) What impact did the principals perceive that the policy change had on their enactment of their role? This study provides insights into how principals understand and interpret educational policy language, how they work toward the development of collaborative relationships and collegial cultures, and how their professional beliefs inform their practice. The policy change and the language of the policy is mediated through principals' professional belief systems as they determine how they will enact the policy change. This study disputes findings in existing literature and contributes to our understanding of change in schools by recognizing that principals play significant roles in change at the school level.

No description available.

No description available.

This case study, conducted in a vocational and technical education institution at post secondary level, was concerned with the effects of an organization development intervention on the ability of an organization to implement a planned change initiated by itself. More specifically, the study hypothesized that organization development, or change to the organization itself, could enhance the process of planned change by the organization. The study develops at length the concept and theory of implementing planned change, of the critical importance of common understandings and shared expectations to this process, and of the centrality of resocialization and social interaction in successful implementation. The study also lists in detail the events and procedures used in this particular organization development intervention, as well as the concept and theory underlying organization development. A number of principles which guided the author's intervention activities are also listed and examined. Data on organizational change induced by the intervention were collected over a period of two years through a questionnaire, used for repeated measures, and through participant observation. These data are presented both quantitatively and qualitatively in the study. The qualitative data are presented in the form Eisner (1979) has described as "educational criticism". Data on the implementation of planned change were collected through a questionnaire, used for repeated measures, a structured interview technique closely based on the Levels of Use methodology (Ha22 et aZ, 1975), and through participant observation data. Data were again collected over a period of two years and are presented both quantitatively and qualitatively. The study indicates clearly that the organizational intervention was successful in bringing about organizational change across a broad range of variables. These changes included organizational elements which research has identified as determinants of the implementation process, The study also indicates that during the period of the intervention the education institution concerned enhanced its ability to implement planned change, and that this enhanced ability was closely related to the organizational changes which had occurred as a result of the organization development intervention.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Seton Hall University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 107-112).

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Toronto, 2004. / Adviser: C.T.P. Diamond.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Tulsa, 1992. / Bibliography: leaves 201-210.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Teachers College, Columbia University. / Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Sponsor: A. Harry Passow. Dissertation Committee: Ann Lieberman. Bibliography: leaves 159-162.